A Japanese TV Network Testing Social Casual Game Network

One of Japan’s major television network Fuji TV announced and called for beta testers for their new online community site “Kimi to Fuji TV” [J] (“Kimi Fuji” in short) on March 15th. “Kimi to” means “with You” in Japanese. At beta, the site offers few social games which themed on their popular TV programs like… Continue reading A Japanese TV Network Testing Social Casual Game Network

Index Corp. Helps Foreign Social Game Developers Enter Japan

Mixi, GREE, Mobage-town – Japan’s top three social networking services have either already opened or decided to open their platforms to third-party developers in the last few months. And a handful of foreign application providers, such as RockYou from the US or Rekoo from China, already managed to successfully launch localized social games on Mixi,… Continue reading Index Corp. Helps Foreign Social Game Developers Enter Japan

ex-Livedoor CEO Takafumi Horie Got Compulsory Seizure Of 3,600 USD

On March 10th, Tokyo District Court broke into a flat of ex-Livedoor CEO Takafumi Horie, a fallen IT entrepreneur star whose arrest caused so-called “Livedoor Shock” in 2006, distrain upon his golf bag, wine cellar appliance, television and shamisen(Japanese guiter) by valued them as 330,000 yen ($3646) in total. Horie is appealing his alleged securities… Continue reading ex-Livedoor CEO Takafumi Horie Got Compulsory Seizure Of 3,600 USD

Naver Japan Starts Another Microblogging Service “Pick”

Naver Japan, a bridgehead of Korean search giant Naver, who is challenging Japanese market second time since 2009, released their new (Tumblr-like) multimedia clipping microblog “Pick” [J]. On Pick, user can post text, image, movie and geolocation. It also encourages users to clip others’ post by 1-click “pick” button so “anyone can join the pick… Continue reading Naver Japan Starts Another Microblogging Service “Pick”

CyberAgent Exports Social Avatar Community To English, Ameba Pico

As pre-announced last November, CyberAgent Inc., a Japanese big web media/advertising company, launched their popular social avatar community, constructed on Flash technology, Ameba Pigu‘s English version Ameba Pico. Based on Ameba Pigu’s avatar cloths-changing, communication chatrooms and casual games, English Pico provided more avatar items for oversea cultures, adds gift and message boards features which… Continue reading CyberAgent Exports Social Avatar Community To English, Ameba Pico

Cellphone Checks If Employees Goofing Off

KDDI R&D Laboratory, a subsidiary of Japan’s No.2 phone company KDDI Corporation, developed a technology to know cellphone holder’s actions remotely, by using data from acceleration sensor embedded on cellphones. photo by Daily Portal Z – “How to sleep at office” Until now, cellphone motion sensor could only detect holder’s repetitive movement like walking or… Continue reading Cellphone Checks If Employees Goofing Off

February 2010 Japan-IT Links (Part 2)

Latter half of February news which we did not write as a dedicated article. (Part 1) Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. Keeping Household Accounts By Taking Receipt With Cellphone Camera For New Sharp/Softbank Mobile Phone Dentsu Tech Launches Cellphone 3D AR App For 3 Major Carriers Performance Marketing Starts Consulting To… Continue reading February 2010 Japan-IT Links (Part 2)

20.5% Of Japanese Owns 2 Or More Cellphones

On an article “Half Of Japanese Male iPhone Users Keep Their Japanese Cellphone” comments I got a good question from @seanohagan, It would be interesting to see how this number compares to an average Japanese male. What percentage of Japanese men have 2 cellphones? Did the research mention anything about that? He is right. Without… Continue reading 20.5% Of Japanese Owns 2 Or More Cellphones

Anti-Pollen-Allegy Nostril Cleansing Ringtone

Index Corporation announced that its cellphone ringtone site Sokuho Music Search (Sokuho = breaking news) provides a new version of ringtone collections “Hana Sukkiri Melody” (Hana Sukkiri = cleared up nostril). “The ringtone will make a nose has resonant frequency with pollens adherent inside your nasal cavity, so eventually pollens fall down. ” Improved from… Continue reading Anti-Pollen-Allegy Nostril Cleansing Ringtone